COLOSAL DEMONSTRATION IN THE STREETS OF BILBAO

They carried banners in the Basque language reading "Rights for the prisoners," ''Amnesty" and "Return prisoners to Nabarra."

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Baskonian city of Bilbao in the Pyrenean Isthmus to support ETA prisoners, in January 7th. The rally was about demanding legally reduced sentences for imprisoned members and sympathizers of the armed group ETA.

The focal point for the demonstrations this time was the city of Bilbao, where demonstrators demanded that the 650 ETA members imprisoned in facilities across Spain, France, Portugal at least be brought back closer to their family's homes. Many Basques consider members of the ETA, which agitates for an independent Basque country in parts of what is now Spain and France, to be freedom fighters. And for many other Basques the ETA members should have been integrated into Spanish and French societies long time ago, leaving behind violent acts.

The rally was also attended by family members of prisoners, members of citizen's initiatives and members of political parties with links to pro-sovereignty groups of the Nabarran nation. In addition to myriads of citizens from all over the Pyrenean Isthmus, who believe is time to do things right to come to the most just possible solution of the conflict.

ETA called a unilateral ceasefire in September, amidst calls from its outlawed political arm, Batasuna, for a complete renunciation of violence.

FORMER SOVEREIGN STATES OF THE PYRENEAN ISTHMUS (X).

KINGDOM OF ILTRIDA AND ILERDA 

In ancient times the city, named Iltrida and Ilerda, was the chief city of the Ilergetes, an Iberian tribe.  Indibil, king of the Ilergetes, and Mandoni, king of the Ausetanes, defended it against the Roman invasion.

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Under the Romans, the city was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, and was a place of considerable importance, historically as well as geographically. It stood upon an eminence, on the right (west) bank of the river Sicoris (the modern Segre), the principal tributary of the Ebre, and some distance above its confluence with the Cinga (modern Cinca); thus commanding the country between those rivers, as well as the great road from Tarraco (modern Tarragona), the provincial capital, in the Pyrenean Isthmus, which here crossed the Sicoris.

                                             
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Its situation induced the legates of Pompey in the isthmus to make it the key of their defense against Caesar, in the first year of the Civil War (49 BCE). Afranius and Marcus Petreius threw themselves into the place with five legions; and their siege by Caesar himself (Battle of Ilerda), as narrated in his own words, forms one of the most interesting passages of military history. The resources exhibited by the great general, in a contest where the formation of the district and the very elements of nature seemed in league with his enemies, have been frequently extolled; but no epitome can do justice to the campaign. It ended by the capitulation of Afranius and Petreius, who were conquered as much by Caesar's generosity as by his strategy.In consequence of the battle, the Latin phrase Ilerdam videas is said to have been used by people who wanted to cast bad luck on someone else.

Under the Roman empire, Ilerda was a very flourishing city, and a municipium. It minted its own coins. It had a fine stone bridge over the Sicoris, (the bridge was so sturdy that its foundations support a bridge to this day). In the time of Ausonius the city had fallen into decay; but it rose again into importance in the Middle Ages.
 




It was part of Visigothic and Muslim Hispania until it was conquered from the Moors by the Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1149. It used to be the seat of a major university, the oldest in the Crown of Aragon, until 1717, when it was moved by Philip V to the nearby town of Cervera.

During the Reapers' War, Lleida was occupied by the French and rebel forces. In 1644 the city was conquered by the Spanish under D. Felipe da Silva.